The present invention relates to apparatus and methods for communicating informational messages to the public. More particularly, the present invention relates to informational messages communicated from message sources such as news and advertising sources by wireless technology to a plurality of display devices available for viewing by the public and particular at mass transit systems including display devices located in mass transit stations and on mass transit vehicles for display of the informational messages to the public.
Transit systems such as bus, train, and aircraft, as well as roadways with personal passenger and commercial vehicles, provide transportation for persons and packages among numerous locations. Often, for persons, the transit system is used for everyday commuting between homes and work. The transit systems have a number of stations at which vehicles for transporting persons arrive and depart. The stations are distributed in the areas served by the transit system. The persons come to the stations to use the transit services. Generally, the persons gather in increasing numbers as the time approaches for the vehicle to arrive. Persons at the station who do not board the vehicle wait for the next vehicle. Commuter transit typically involves regular, periodic arrivals of vehicles throughout the day, pursuant to schedules of arrival and departures for facilitating the travel of persons in the area served by the transit system.
The gathering of persons at transit stations provides opportunities to communicate information. Particularly, advertisers find that persons waiting at transit stations for vehicles provides an opportunity to present commercial messages to an audience with reduced distractions to seeing the commercial message. Often, transit stations include printed poster billboard advertisements promoting the goods and services of the entity being advertised. These billboards are posters or other displays which are changed from time-to-time, generally monthly or longer intervals.
In addition, the transit system communicates messages to the persons at the stations. Often there are fixed signs that identify the station. Temporary signs may be placed to advise persons of changes that may affect certain persons using the transit system, such as advising of a closed station, a canceled or changed schedule, and the like. In other circumstances, the transit systems make audio announcements over loudspeakers to advise persons of information.
Persons waiting for transit vehicles also read newspapers and magazines, to help pass the idle time until the vehicle arrives.
While these communication devices are useful, there are drawbacks to their use. Billboard display advertising is significantly labor intensive. The advertising must be prepared and approved, with printing well in advance of subsequent installation of the advertising in the various stations. The advertising therefore is more general in nature, and it is costly and time consuming to attempt having the advertising be responsive to weekly or daily events. Further, different approaches to promoting the benefits of the advertiser are more difficult to implement. Advertisements targeted to one area may not be as effective in another area. Placing printed signs by transit systems to communicate timely information about changes to schedules is labor consuming. Small placard signs positioned in entryways may not be observed, and events may be unfolding quickly such that signage is not effectively communicating current accurate information. For persons waiting for vehicles, idle time may be wasted due to lack of newspaper or other reading material.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for an improved informational messages display system for public facilities, particularly mass transit systems including stations and transit vehicles, and a method of communicating informational messages for display to persons using public facilities such as transit systems. It is to such that the present invention is directed.
The present invention meets the need in the art by providing apparatus and methods for displaying informational messages on display devices available for viewing by persons and particularly for persons using mass transit systems including displays in mass transit stations and on mass transit vehicles, which informational messages are communicated from at least one message source by wireless apparatus to at least one of a plurality of display devices. The present invention comprises at least one message source for creating a plurality of message records, each message record having a cap code which identifies a selected one of a plurality of display devices, a pin code which identifies one of a plurality of message memory slots associated with the particular display device to receive the message, a message and at least one display characteristic for the message. Each one of the plurality of display devices has a storage means that defines the plurality of message memory slots for storing a plurality of communicated messages and the display characteristics associated with said communicated messages. The display device has a transceiver which receives the message and the display characteristics therefore based on the cap code The transceiver also selectively acknowledges receipt of the message. Each display device has a visual display screen for displaying the stored messages based on the display characteristics for each of said stored messages. A controller associated with each display device displays in a selected sequence the plurality of messages based on the display characteristics associated with each message.
In another aspect, the present invention provides a method of displaying informational messages communicated from at least one message source by wireless apparatus to a plurality of display devices available to the public, and particularly such display devices associated with mass transit systems having display devices located in mass transit stations and on transit vehicles, for display of the informational messages to the public, comprising the steps of:
(a) creating a plurality of message records, each message record generated by a message source, each message record having a cap code which identifies the display device which is to receive the message, a pin code which identifies one of a plurality of message memory slots associated with the particular display device to receive the message, a message, and at least one display characteristic associated with the message;
(b) communicating each of the message records from the message source to at least one of a plurality of display devices based on the cap code;
(c) storing the display characteristics and the message in one of the message memory slots of a memory device of the display device based on the pin code; and
(d) displaying in a selected sequence the plurality of messages based on the display characteristics associated with each message.